"Care from Qld Ambulance officers and Ipswich GP After Hours Clinic"

We were booked in to go to the after hours doctor but approx. 30 mins before the appointment my wife decided she felt worse and told me we had better call an ambulance. She had taken her blood pressure about an hour before the appointment and found the systolic blood pressure to be 189! She also had a massive headache and in the previous week had had both diarrhoea and constipation. Two ambulance officers arrived soon after we called. One of them, Brian was caring, kind and respectful. I found the other officer to be rude, obnoxious, unkind and disrespectful. He didn’t give his name. He wanted to know why they had been called, even though the symptoms above had appeared to have been outlined to him. He was full of, what I thought were hurtful remarks and said ‘you’ve called the ambulance because of a headache?? ’. We were also told by that ambulance officer that they would take us to the hospital just to keep us happy, anything to keep us happy. I followed the ambulance in my car to the Ipswich General Hospital. Brian was with my wife and booked her in at the Emergency Department (I didn’t see the grumpy officer again). Approximately two hours later we were still waiting so I went up to the Ipswich After Hours GP Clinic and found we could still go there (I had to cancel our previous appointment). There we found Dr M who kindly and respectfully treated my wife for her extremely high blood pressure, constant headache and other symptoms, in contrast to the ‘rough and gruff’ handling we had received from one of the two ambulance officers. It makes me doubtful whether I’ll ever call the ambulance again.

Responses

Thank you for taking the time to tell your story about your wife's recent health problems. I am pleased that the Ipswich GP After Hours Clinic and Dr Meyrick were able to help your wife out with her blood pressures problems and I hope she is feeling better. It is extremely worrying when our loved ones become ill and I hope that should either you or your wife have any need to use our services again, you don't hesitate to call us.